Reflection on Presentations...

I found the hands-on work with the Prezi to be particularly valuable. I feel like I may have spent an inordinate amount of time tinkering with it over the weekend when compared to the technical prowess of my actual product, but it was definitely time well spent in terms of learning to work with Prezi. Seeing everyone else’s presentations was also incredibly useful, as there were things I learned from their use of Prezi that I will certainly incorporate as I go forward.

As I reflect on the overall assignment now that it’s done, I feel like my main commentary is going to be on the expectation of our outcomes and the way that was communicated. I feel as if learning to use either Prezi or Smartboard (or to practice with Powerpoint) was the main goal of this particular assignment, and I really felt like the rubric communicated this desired outcome, but in the end, it seems that the true expectation was to actually teach a viable lesson in our content area. Had that been expressed clearly in the rubric, I think I would have (and perhaps others would have, too) reconsidered my topic, my presentation, and maybe even the way I set up my Prezi stops.

I think when we get to the nuts and bolts of the technology that we’ll be using in the classroom (as we did with this presentation) our individual skill levels become more apparent, and honestly, I think this is probably the toughest part of teaching a technology class, as you have some students who are not as familiar or comfortable with the various tools we’re learning to use, you have many of us in the middle ground (where we might be more comfortable trying things out, but are not fully skilled), and then you have some advanced students who have clearly already mastered the use of and the construction of a presentation like this that incorporates various types of technology.

In reflecting upon our individual presentations, I thought everyone did a reasonably good job selecting a topic in their own content area, and transmitting their relevant information effectively to us in their presentations. There were obviously some glitches that didn’t get worked out, but again, we’re still very much in the learning phase of using the technology here. I know that giving a simple “good job” isn’t really offering constructive criticism, but for a first presentation using something that most (or maybe all) of us had never before seen or used before this, everyone did a commendable job. I feel much more prepared now to get up and use something other than Powerpoint in front of a class, and I’m really very satisfied with having learned about Prezi and having used it to do this presentation.